Have you recently started an SEO agency or you are just planning to set one up? One of the things you are like going to be very concerned about is how to generate leads for your new business. This is a very valid concern especially given the number of agencies already offering the services you wish to offer.
Is the market saturated? According to the discussion in this forum here, it is estimated that there are over 10 million agencies offering or claiming to offer SEO related services. If however, you consider that there are currently over 1.5 billion websites in the world today, with most of these not doing well, you will agree that with smart marketing, you can get enough business to become successful.
What we will do in this article is to look at a few tips that will help you land those all-important SEO leads. This is especially critical during those early days. Once you get past this point and have handled things as well as you should, getting leads will become easier.
Before we jump right into looking at how to go about generating these leads, we must first establish that the longtime success of these tips is hinged on the premise that you know what you are doing and can deliver on whatever promises you make your potential clients.
With this caveat out of the way, let’s now begin to look at some tips.
Identify Your Target Audience
The very first thing any business must do is identify the solution it is offering (which in our case is SEO) and then, it must identify the people that need this solution. We have identified the solution we offer, so we must identify our target audience.
Like we stated above, there are currently over 1.5 billion websites in the world today. However, of this number, only about 200 million are active. This means that over 1.3 billion websites are either inactive or performing far below what it can and should.
In fact, of the active 200 million, a lot are still under-performing. There is a difference between being active and being productive or effective.
There are two classes of audience you, therefore, need to identify. The first are those who know they need your service and the second are those who are not aware of the fact that they need your service. In the first, those who know they need help will be actively seeking it while those who do not know they need help will not be seeking this help.
You will therefore have to approach these two different classes of potential clients differently.
The Client Who is Unaware
We start by examining what you can do to get clients who have a problem but do not know what this problem is. Identifying such websites is quite easy.
We all know that any website outside of the first page of a search result has very little chances of being seen. For informational purposes, you can get a detailed breakdown of the percentage of people who are likely to see a webpage based on its position in search results here: https://www.searchenginewatch.com/2013/06/20/no-1-position-in-google-gets-33-of-search-traffic-study/.
Using factors like a website’s position in search results for search phrases, domain authority, domain age, traffic, UX and other SEO indices, you can determine how badly a website is doing.
By taking time to prepare a report detailing how much better a website could be doing on several fronts and how much more sales (conversion) it could be getting with your help, you can actually get the webmaster or owner of the website to begin to realize what their problem has been.
Being the one who pointed this out to them gives you a form of advantage over any other agency. You can easily land a couple of such website at a minimal fee to build your brand reputation.
Clients who are Aware
This next class of potential clients is made of those who are aware of their problem and are likely actively seeking help. Unlike those who are not aware, they will likely be looking for more than just a description of the problems they have and what you can do for them.
What they are likely looking for is proof that you can get the job done. This is what makes the first step above very important because it allows you to gather proof of your ability.
In the next section, we will look at some other tips that will help draw in this class of potential clients.
Focus on Your First Client – You
Like we were saying above, some clients will be more interested in seeing what you can do or have done. Aside from showing what you have done for others, you can also show what you have done for yourself.
Since these clients who are aware will likely be searching for agencies online, how well your website is performing SEO-wise will go a long way in helping the client reach a decision.
Spend some quality time ensuring your website is well optimized and achieving the best results possible. If they find you from a search engine search, it gives you more credence than if you knocked on their doors via cold calling.
Take Advantage of Social Networks
When we talk about social networks we are referring to any and every forum where SEO issues are discussed. Such forums provide you with a good opportunity to establish a reputation as someone who is a professional on the subject matter.
Having done this, you will be pleasantly surprised at the number of folks that will begin to come to you publicly or privately to seek your help on issues relating to SEO. One you can be seen as an SEO authority, every other thing will begin to fall in place.
Conclusion
It is important as we round off this article that we reiterate the importance of knowing what you are doing. Do not embark on this journey half-prepared. If you need more training, take some time to go through online ad course reviews to help you find courses that will improve your knowledge of the digital marketing domain and all that comes with it.
Once you have acquired enough knowledge and put them to use with verifiable results, then you are set to hit the market. Remember that there are over 1.5 billion websites out there and all of these are your potential clients.
Get yourself ready, follow the steps outlined above and begin to reel in the SEO leads.
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